Head of Autonomy, Ground

HEAD OF AUTONOMY, GROUND

Location: Ottawa Office, On-Site

Reports to: Director of Autonomy

Type: Full-Time

THE ROLE

There are no lane markings in the bush. A ground vehicle that drives itself has to judge whether snow-covered ground will hold, whether that shadow is a ditch, and where it is after an hour under canopy with no GPS — then keep going when the link back to the operator is blocked by the terrain it just drove behind. Our systems are in the field with the CAF now, in Canadian terrain and Canadian winters.

You set the technical direction for ground autonomy at Dominion; perception, terrain assessment, localization, and mobility behaviours for our uncrewed ground vehicles, operating alongside crewed vehicles and dismounted soldiers. You build on the same autonomy foundation as our air and maritime systems and integrate with AuraNet, our C2, mesh, and tasking layer, so a new platform inherits autonomy rather than growing its own. You lead the ground autonomy team and grow it.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Set the ground autonomy roadmap — capability by capability, platform by platform — and turn it into a sequenced technical plan with real milestones.

- Build off-road perception and traversability: what the vehicle can cross, at what speed, and what it must not — through snow, mud, dust, vegetation, and darkness, negative obstacles included.

- Build localization and route following that hold without GNSS — under canopy, in defiles, and underground — including taught-route and leader-follower operation.

- Design the mobility behaviour layer: route execution, convoy and follow-me, teleoperation handover, and what the vehicle does when terrain cuts the operator link.

- Integrate with AuraNet for tasking, telemetry, and mesh, designed for bandwidth-constrained and disconnected operation from the start.

- Set the evaluation standard: what a behaviour has to demonstrate in simulation, on the proving ground, and in trials before it is trusted with a mission, and where deterministic policies belong versus probabilistic ones.

- Hire and lead the ground autonomy team, working shoulder to shoulder with hardware, software, and simulation.

- Get out to the vehicle. Trials, integration, and operator feedback, in days not quarters.

WHAT YOU BRING

- A senior engineering leader who has fielded ground vehicle autonomy outdoors in unstructured terrain — defence, mining, forestry, agriculture, or construction — where the environment is not mapped, marked, or built for vehicles.

- Depth in the ground autonomy problem: terrain perception and traversability, GNSS-denied localization and mapping, and motion planning for vehicles with real mass and real dynamics.

- Experience leading engineers — a team you hired, structured, and set technical direction for, against a roadmap you were accountable for.

- Command of both deterministic policies (the system follows predefined rules consistently) and probabilistic ones (the system decides under uncertainty and changing conditions), and clear judgement about which the mission calls for.

- A track record of taking autonomy from prototype to fielded system: trial campaigns, failure analysis, and the evidence that convinced someone to trust it.

- Based in Ottawa, or ready to relocate — this role is on-site with the team and close to the customer.

NICE TO HAVE

- Winter and Arctic operation, and what snow, ice, and whiteout do to lidar and cameras.

- Teaming with crewed vehicles or dismounted soldiers — convoy, leader-follower, and squad-level tasking.

- Underground, tunnel, or subterranean autonomy.

- Payload autonomy on a ground platform — remote weapon stations, EOD, resupply, or casualty evacuation.

- Simulation-in-the-loop and sim-to-real for validating autonomy before it drives.

- ROS 2 and edge compute on constrained, ruggedized hardware.

No defence background required.

We've hired people who didn't tick every box. If this is the work you want to do, please apply anyway.

WHY JOIN US

Building something meaningful starts with the right people.

At Dominion Dynamics, you’ll:

- Shape Canada’s future by building real defence capability for the CAF and our allies.

- Make decisions that ship in a high-trust environment with short feedback loops and rapid iteration.

- Move fast, field faster, and work directly with the operator — our systems are in the field with the CAF now.

- Have an impact from day one with equity, responsibility, and direct access to leadership.

If you’re curious, hands-on, and driven by the opportunity to make a difference, this is where you belong!

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

- Competitive base salary and company equity*

- Comprehensive health benefits

- Additional equity granted based on impact*

We use AI tools to support parts of the hiring process, including screening and reviewing responses. Final hiring decisions are always made by people and follow all applicable privacy and employment laws in Canada.

*Equity awarded to full time employees only.